Sweet Dreams, Little One - Tapa blanda

It's early morning on New Year's Eve, and nine-year-old Massimo wakes up to a long, doleful cry and the disconcerting image of his dad being supported by two strangers. Inexplicably, his mother has disappeared, leaving only a vague trail of perfume in his room and her dressing gown bundled up at the foot of his bed. Where has she gone? Will she ever come back? And will Massimo be able to say sorry, after quarrelling with her the night before? At turns poignant and funny, Sweet Dreams, Little One - the most successful book to come out of Italy last year, and an international sensation - is the story of a secret which has been kept hidden for forty years and the uplifting tale of a boy who, as he grows into an adult, has to learn how to cope with the pain of bereavement and the demons of his own nightmares.

Massimo Gramellini is Deputy Editor at La Stampa, where he runs a front-page daily column. A household name in Italy thanks to his regular TV appearances, he is the author of several books, including L'ultima riga delle favole (The Last Line of Fairy Tales) and Fai bei sogni (Sweet Dreams, Little One), an international bestseller that has been translated into fourteen languages.